The plot of this short story revolved around a professional hunter named Rainsford. He falls off his boat and swims to an island where he recently heard gunfire. On this island, he finds a huge estate and meets a hulking man named Ivan. Ivan?s leader and the antogonist of the story, General Zaroff, enters the scene and introduces himself. Over dinner the general explains that he is a hunter who has lost interest in the sport. However he says he has discovered a new way to make hunting enjoyable. He tells Rainsford he hunts people for a challenge. Rainsford is horrified to learn this about the General. Later he discovers that he is to be hunted by the General. The General sends him off and hunts him for three days. Each of the first two days the General finds Rainsford and lets him go. The last day, however, Rainsford cheats and swims off the island back to the house where he kills Zaroff.
Rainsford Island buildings
Rainsford Island
The Pav, Rainsford Road, 1978Protagonist- Sanger Rainsford ? ?The best sport in the world,? agreed Rainsford.
?For the hunter,? amended Whitney, ? Not for the jaguar? ?Don?t talk rot, Whitney,? said Rainsford. ? You?re a big-game hunter, not a philosopher. Who cares how the jaguar feels??? This quote sums up Rainsford?s feelings on hunting and taking life in general. This is an important quote because he ends up being the hunted. Therefore, he starts to realize what a hunted jaguar feels. Although there is no direct quote in the book explaining this, I believe Rainsford is a polite, humanitarian man who forces himself to believe that an animal cannot feel what is happening to it.
Setting- The setting of this story is that of a tropical island. The story is set in the Caribbean. After landing on this island,